PAUL FLOWERS RECEIVES NSF GRANT FOR RESEARCH AND PUBLISHES TEXTBOOK

Dr. Paul Flowers (Chemistry) has received a National Science Foundation (NSF) grant under the Chemical Measurement and Imaging Program. The three-year, $159,000 grant will provide equipment, supplies and stipends for six undergraduate research assistants. Dr. Flowers is developing new methods and devices for conducting chemical analysis of compounds seeking to save time, cost, and require much smaller sample sizes compared to existing techniques.

Professor Flowers also recently published a new textbook, Chemistry, that is designed for a traditional two-semester introductory course.  Dr. Flowers served as lead author of a team of contributors. The book was published by OpenStax College March 2015. OpenStax is a non-profit project of Rice University with the mission to provide high quality college texts in electronic format at no cost to students.

RUDY LOCKLEAR NOMINATED TO SERVE AS PRESIDENT OF THE ASSOCIATION OF NORTH CAROLINA MAGISTRATES  

Rudy Locklear (Sociology and Criminal Justice) was nominated to serve as President of the Association of North Carolina Magistrates.  After receiving notice of the nomination, he was invited to attend the State of the Judiciary Address from Mark Martin, Chief Justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court. Chief Justice Mark Martin delivered the State of the Judiciary address before the N.C. General Assembly on Wednesday, March 4, at the Legislative Building in Raleigh. The address was in response to an invitation by a joint resolution of the General Assembly. Themed, “Justice for All,” it was the first State of the Judiciary address since 2001.  Rudy Locklear (pictured in his UNCP tie) credits his success to a quality education from UNCP!

MUSIC STUDENTS RECEIVE AWARDS  

All three of our UNCP voice students that participated in NC NATS (National Association of Teachers of Singing) Classical Student Auditions placed in the top three in their categories.  Fabian Griffith placed 1st in Junior Men category, Terriq White placed 3rd in the Senior Men category, and Meredith Shanahan placed 3rd in the Junior Women category. This audition was held at the NC School of the Arts in Winston-Salem and all of these students are invited to sing again at the Mid-Atlantic NATS Competition on March 27-28, 2015 at the University of Maryland in College Park, MD.  Special thanks to Dr. Seung Ah Kim (Music) for great accompanying at this audition!

 

GEOLOGY MAJORS TRAVEL TO THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY OF AMERICA CONFERENCE AND VISIT THE SMOKY MOUNTAINS

In March of 2015, Geology students attended the Geological Society of America Southeastern Section meeting and conference. They participated in career workshops, listened to research talks, perused research posters by professionals and students, and learned about Professional Geologist Licensing. As they drove back through the Smokey Mountains, they stopped at several places and studied rock outcrops. Stops included Cullasaja Falls, a well-studied location involving upstream knick point migration of rivers as the Appalachians are potentially being rejuvenated.

STUDENT PROPOSAL ACCEPTED FOR CIVIC ENGAGEMENT CONFERENCE 

Sandra Torres' proposal, Stories of Struggle: Work Histories of the Lumbee, has been accepted to the IMPACT Conference, the largest annual conference focused on the civic engagement of college students in community service, service-learning, community-based research, advocacy and other forms of social action.  Sandra assisted Dr. Jason Hutchens (Mass Communication) and Dr. Michele Fazio (English, Theatre, and Foreign Languages) with archival research for the film (Voices of the Lumbee) and also worked to create the work history exhibit. Sandra be heading to Los Angeles in February to lead a workshop introducing both projects and will also screen the film trailer. 

YEARBOOK RECEIVES RECOGNITION

The American Scholastic Press Association released the results of its 2014 yearbook competition, and we are pleased to announce that the 2014 Indianhead received a First Place award and a separate award for Best Sports Section.  The award citation states that our 2014 yearbook “shows excellence in the fields of writing, photography and page design and contains elements/sections of an effective yearbook that will be treasured for years to come.”  Congratulations to Robert Hamilton, Nicole Payne, Christina Dawkins, and all the other students who worked so hard on the 2014 Indianhead—and are continuing to work on producing what we hope will be another award-winning edition in 2015! Sara Oswald (English, Theatre, and Foreign Languages) serves as the yearbook advisor.

UNDERGRADUATE RESEARCH STUDENT RECEIVES AWARD

 Anna Wade, an undergraduate research student, received the Best Undergraduate Paper Award for the poster/demonstration entitled “Simple, Low Cost Wavefront Splitting Refractometer” at the North Carolina Section of the American Association of Physics Teachers conference in November 2014. Dr. Bill Brandon (Physics) served as the research supervisor for the project.

BOOKS PUBLISHED BY PROFESSOR OF AMERICAN INDIAN STUDIES

Dr. Jay Hansford C. Vest (American Indian Studies) recently published “Native American Oralcy: Interpretations of Indigenous Thought.”  Details and scholarly reviews are available at here.   Another book, “Bridging the Great Divide: Studies in Pikuni-Blackfeet and Salish-Kootenai Sacred Geography,” is scheduled to be published in February 2015.